Enable releases and versions

Releases represent points in time for your project. They can be used to schedule how features are rolled out to your customers, or as a way to organize work that has been completed for the project.

Enable releases and versions for your software project

1. Navigate to your team-managed or company-managed software project.

2. Go to Project Settings > Features.

3. Enable the Releases feature. 

A new menu item, Releases, will be added to the project menu.

The following changes will be made to your project when you enable the feature:

• A new field, Fix versions, will be added to your issue types.

• A new menu item, Releases, will be added to the left-hand project menu.

Create versions for your project

In Jira Software, each release is called a version. There are two ways to create versions in your project. Only project admins can create versions.

From the Releases page

1. Select Releases in the project menu on the left.

2. Select Create version. Give your version a name, eg 1.1.

From the Versions panel on the Backlog

1. On the Backlog, select the Version filter and enable the Versions panel toggle.

2. Select Backlog in the project menu on the left.

3. Select + Create version.

Assign versions to your issues

From the issue view

1. Open an issue.

2. Under the Fix versions field, select a version that to add the issue to. You can select more than one version.

From the Versions panel

1. On the Backlog, select the Version filter and enable the Versions panel toggle.

2. Navigate to the Backlog

3. Open the Versions panel.

4. Drag an issue to the version you want to add it to.

Filter versions on the Board and Backlog

1. Navigate to your project's Board or Backlog.

2. In the Versions filter or panel, select one or more versions. Issues belonging to these versions will continue showing, while all other issues will be hidden.

Use JQL to do advanced searching using versions

You can use JQL to perform more powerful searched using versions.

1. Select Jira home in the top-left corner.

2. Select Filters > Search issues.

3. Select Switch to JQL.

4. In your JQL query, you can use the FixVersion operator to search for issues in a specific version. Eg: FixVersion = 1.1.

Monitor the progress of your versions

The Releases page shows how much work has been completed in each version.